Aftermath part 2
by Zakeno
Summary: The day has turned disastrous, the floodwaters having threatened the family more directly than ever. 3 and 4 stumble upon their greatest discovery yet, but not without putting the stitchpunks in danger...


Time seemed to slow down as the burlap doll began to fall down... down... down. 4 leaped from his arms and hugged the wood as tightly as she could as the rain stung her face. 7 yelled and dropped 3 safely on the other side before running across the pole and roughly pulling 4 back up onto the wood. As the twin rushed to rejoin her twin, 7 leaped from the powerline and after 9, who was bobbing downstream. His head resurfaced the water every few seconds, coughing and spluttering, his pupils blinking rapidly. She reached him, and clung to his body, but honestly 7 had no idea what to do next.

3 and 4 watched their 'parents' vanish out of sight. There wasn't much they could do. Quickly they blinked messages to each other, debating on what their next move should be.

"_Mom'll save Dad..."_ 4 flashed, her message faltering slightly.

"_We should go into the concrete building... they'll know we're there." _replied 3, before gazing at the massive, imposing structure. 4 gave a quick nod, and together the twins cautiously approached the building.

The rain became even more furious, now feeling like a thousand little knives. 3 and 4 picked up pace, now almost jogging towards the safety of concrete. Finally they reached its wall, but neither stitchpunk knew exactly how they were going to get inside. They felt against the stone, trying to find any crevice or opening. 4 could feel her mind painfully sparking from the water, and knew they both needed to be out of this weather soon. The side of her head felt like it had exploded with light, and now gave an unpleasant ring to her hearing.

After what seemed like ages, 3 and 4 found a circular hole a little ways up the wall. They hefted a slab of concrete below it, and together managed to climb into the hole and into the other side of the wall. When their eyes had adjusted, they looked around with surprise.

There was no secret base in this building. No library, no museum, no school. No military training base, no parking lot, no... anything. It was completely and utterly empty. Every step they took echoed loudly, making both the twins flinch at their own footsteps. They crept into an open doorway, hand in hand, and into a long hall. A few lightbulbs were suspended from the ceiling, one of them flickered uneasily. 3 looked at it, frowning. How could it possibly still work? He shook the thought from his head as they continued exploring. The duo met a flight of stairs and crept down them at a painfully slow rate, terrified of making any noise, and made even more uneasy by the fact that even though they tried to be completely silent, every time that so much as the very tip of their foot touched the ground, it echoed like a gunshot.

_Scrtch scrtch scrtch_

4 swung her head back forward, craning her neck and rapidly focusing and refocusing her eyes, trying to see what had made that noise. She turned back to 3.

"_Did you hear that?!" _she blinked hastily.

3 nodded, without answering. The twins looked around slowly, not daring to take another step.

_Fwwwwwwwwwwp!_

4 turned and looked into the darkness again, trying to find what the noise was coming from.

Suddenly, something black descended onto her.

~*~

The white stitchpunk's eyes began to open slowly, but they focused and unfocused at a dizzying rate. She closed them tightly. Electrical shocks buzzed through her little body, making her wince and grimace. Her head felt like something had crushed it and then gnawed on the bits of it. It wasn't pouring any longer, the clouds rolled quickly across the sky, occasionally spitting a drop or two of water.

Suddenly her eyes shot open again.

Who _was_ she?

She sat up quickly, too quickly, and fell back down. Water rushed an inch from her face. She struggled backwards away from the floodwater, and bumped right into a limp burlap form. The stitchpunk stared at the doll, trying to get her eyes to focus on what was delicately written onto its back.

_9... _she thought, the number sparking something deep within her memory. She gnawed her lip, trying to figure out why she remembered the name 9. It was an odd name, really.

What was her name again?

Hmm.

She couldn't remember.

She had a feeling it was something like Sabella or Sevda. Something starting with an S.

_I must be Sabella. _She thought to herself, while standing up shakily. A bird's skull sat near her. She stared at it a moment before another crippling bolt of electricity fell her once again. She gave a little grunt of pain, and lay curled up in agony for a moment before the shock wore off. She still lay there for a few moments, as her circuits began to dry off. While she lay there, curled into a ball with her arms clutched around her legs, she watched the still limp burlap form.

After almost fifteen minutes the burlap stitchpunk's finger twitched.

'Sabella' blinked, her eyes still not completely focused, and then crawled over to the still languid form. "Hello?" she whispered hoarsely, and poked a finger into the stitchpunk's side. "Are you alive?" she asked in the same hoarse voice.

There was no answer.

Suddenly 'Sabella' was inexplicably overcome with grief. She shook the figure roughly. "Please wake up." she pleaded.

Still no reaction from the burlap doll.

"Wake up!" the white stitchpunk cried.

Nothing.

Sabella sat back, covering her mechanical eyes and rocking her body softly. A few little sobs escaped her chest. Why was she crying? She didn't know this... thing. Or at least, she didn't think that she knew him.

Suddenly the figure murmured something unintelligible and rolled over slightly. The sobbing stitchpunk quieted herself and peeked out of her fingers. "Hello?" she asked again.

The burlap thing began to raise itself slowly, all the while looking as if it was in an immense amount of pain. Sabella leaned forward and helped him to sit up. His pupils were tiny and unfocused, and he blinked rapidly.

"S-seven?" he asked shakily, coughing.

"Sabella." said Sabella.

"...w-w-who?" 9 stuttered, still unable to see anything other than a white blob beside him.

"Sabella." repeated Sabella.

Finally the burlap stitchpunk's eyes came into focus, or at least enough to recognize the doll that sat crouched beside him.

"Seven!" he choked and hugged her tightly to his body. The confused 7 (known to herself as Sabella) struggled in his grip, and shoved him away roughly.

"What the hell are you doing to me?!" she yelled raggedly.

9 looked as if he had been punched in the face. "Seven...?"

"I'm Sabella for the last time!!" Sabella shouted.

"N-No... you're 7..." he murmured, looking heartbroken.

"N-No, I'm not." Sabella growled. "I'm Sabella. And who are you?

9's expression made it obvious he was even more crushed. "You don't... you don't remember me?" he whispered with a broken voice.

"I won't remember you until I meet you, at least." murmured 7 grumpily.

9 clutched his hands to his aching head. He realized that the water had damaged 7's memory, and who knows what else. "I'm 9. The Scientist's ninth creation. You're 7. His seventh creation. About a month ago we destroyed the Machine, who killed our friends 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8."

"This Scientist guy must've been a bloody idiot, to have given us all number names." said Sabella grumpily.

"Y-You mean you don't remember _anything?_" stuttered 9 in partial disbelief, and partial horror.

Sabella shrugged. "I know I'm not named a _number_, anyway."

9 shook his head. "O-Okay... uh..." he thought for a moment, trying to think of something to trigger her memory. Suddenly he looked up at her. "3 and 4... we left them behind."

Suddenly something lodged itself in 7's throat. She didn't know why. "W-who?" she asked with a shaky voice, obviously stricken, but also obviously confused.

"The twins!!" 9 cried.

7 squinted, racking her mind, trying hard to remember. "The... twins?"

9 groaned and cradled his head in his hands. 7 didn't enjoy seeing this '9' person in such a state.

"O-okay..." started 7, obviously just trying to play along. "I'm 7, and 3 and 4 are the twins. We left them behind. When did we leave them behind?"

"When I fell off the telephone pole..." murmured 9, his face still in his hands.

"Fine, fine." said 7, silently thinking _What the hell is a telephone pole...? _"And..." she thought for a moment. "I jumped in after you?"

9 looked up, and nodded slowly.

"And... 4 was about to fall in, too-" 9 winced at this point in the conversation. "-but I put her back in safety, before jumping into the water after you."

9 watched her carefully. "So you do remember?"

7 chewed on her lip. "A... little."

She looked at the ground a moment before throwing her arms around 9. "I forgot the twins!!" she cried in disbelief. He hugged her back.

"The water damaged your memory." 9 murmured in an almost relieved tone.

Suddenly 7 stood up, yanking 9 roughly along with her. "The twins!" she shouted. "Where are they?"

9 thought for a moment. "Oh! The big grey building!" he realized.

7 stared at him, confused. "The... what?"

"No time to explain, we just need to go!" 9 replied quickly. He leaned down and grabbed her skullmet, and handed it to her. She stared at it, befuddled. "That's your favorite helmet. Put it on, or something." he explained exasperatedly. She placed it over her head, feeling as if she was putting part of her brain back into place, as with the skullmet came memories of fighting giant mechanical beasts and watching her friends being...

She shook the thought from her head, and quickly began clambering up the rubbish after 9, and away from the floodwaters. The sky was beginning to rumble and darken, looking more and more sinister with each passing minute. A few angry, unprovoked whips of lightning cracked across the sky, causing it to yell out and cry more earnestly, covering the Earth in its tears. With the wetness came more sparks inside 7's body, feeling like little knives that stabbed her from the inside. She winced and looked back at 9, who was obviously having the same troubles as she. The wind blew in their faces, as if determined to see them fail, perhaps feeling cheated of their lives. It was, after all, quite miraculous that they had survived the floodwaters. If they had been in any other place when they fell, or at any other time...

"We're gonna short-circuit!" 9 yelped as a loud _crick! _echoed from his inner mechanisms.

"The twins might be in danger!" 7 growled unsympathetically. Honestly she didn't remember 9 as well as she remembered twins, and so her maternal instinct overruled his common sense. 9 whimpered a bit, but instead of arguing, he grabbed a piece of wood and held it above his head as they ran.

It's quite difficult to run as fast as a river when you're human sized. When you're about six inches high, it's ten times more difficult. 7's legs pounded rhythmically into the muddy soil and ruins, as she ran upstream, always keeping an eye on the horizon. 9 huffed as he tried to keep up. His eyes watched the ground in front of him, carefully looking for anything that could possibly trip him. They continued to run for almost an hour, their footsteps completely blocked out by the roar of rain. It was twilight, and their visibility kept going down. If they didn't find the building soon... they wouldn't be able to find it until morning. That thought made 7 all of a sudden speed up her pace to a sprint, and 9 began to fall behind.

"7 I can't keep up...!" he yelled out to her. She didn't answer. He frowned and tried to push his robotic legs to go even faster.

Just as night was beginning to fall, a faintly familiar building arose on the horizon.

The concrete building.

7 almost laughed. "9! It's just ahead!" she yelled enthusiastically, slowing her pace so he could catch up.

"Oh, thank goodness!" he wheezed as he caught up. She hooked her arm around his.

"C'mon, we're not there yet!" 7 shouted against the roar of the storm. Yet another brilliant flash of lightning illuminated their path.

They finally reached the building, and began feeling along the stone wall for an entrance. "Let's see..." murmured 7 as she concentrated at finding a way into the building. Finally she found the same hole 3 and 4 had found hours before. She climbed in and hoisted 9 after her.

There was nothing but pitch blackness to greet her.

"Shit..." she cursed under her breath, looking around wildly. 9 nervously grabbed her hand. She looked toward him for a moment before walking in one direction, 9 trailing behind her. 7 had no idea where she was going, and so she held a hand out in front of her in case of a wall that might block her way. Suddenly the floor fell out from under her and she tumbled forward, down the invisible staircase that she had failed to notice, and into the cool darkness of the lower levels of the building. Something fluttered quickly out of her way as she hit the bottom of the staircase, and a quick succession of _clicks _echoed in the air. 9 could've sworn he had seen a flash ahead of them.

"3? 4?" he asked, terrified.

The sound of footsteps rushing towards them made both 7 and 9 jump and stumble backwards over the steps. Suddenly something latched itself around 7's hips, and she screamed. The thing looked up to her and suddenly its eyes brightened.

"_Hello Mom!"_ blinked the familiar eyes, illuminating a relieved and smiling stitchpunk face.

9 laughed, picking up 3, who had tightly attached himself to the fatherly figure. 7 began to laugh too, but all laughter was cut short as something coughed politely behind them. The twins jumped up excitedly and ran over the the figure, illuminating it so that 7 and 9 could see.

A handsome gray bat crouched a few steps up from them, the twins sitting on either side of it. It bared its sharp teeth in a smile, and nodded.

9 took a step back. "W-what is _that?!_"

The bat chattered something unintelligible to 7 or 9, but both twins seemed to understand. 4 blinked a message back to it. It gave another nod, and flapped its wings madly as it headed into the darkness. A few seconds later, the entire room was dimly illuminated by a small, flickering lightbulb. 7 looked around, stunned. Around thirty plants were lined up neatly, with small hoses watering the plants at given intervals throughout the day. A few long lightbulbs were also apparently hooked up to the time system, and must have been replacements for sunlight. Suddenly, she understood why there were no windows in this building, and it seemed completely blocked from the world. _Because it was supposed to be blocked off from the rest of the world. _Or more specifically, any gases that might try to, oh, say, wipe all life off the planet.

"You...You've kept everything in here functioning. You've kept life..." 7 murmured in amazement. The bat grinned and nodded.

9 grimaced, obviously afraid of this creature. "Are there any others?" Once again the bat nodded. "Where?" asked 9. The bat frowned, before opening it's jaws and emitting a high pitched scream. 7 and 9 immediately covered their ears and jammed their eyes shut, still getting massive headaches. In a few seconds, though, a couple more creatures fluttered daintily into the room. A dainty and beautiful Egyptian Fruit Bat fluttered to the brown bat's side, and dipped her head to the stunned stitchpunks. The other, a big brown bat, flapped clumsily over to them, and landed with a little grunt. He was obviously older than the other two, and didn't look too happy about being there. He reminded 9 of 1, and he laughed inwardly.

3 and 4 each gave a little applause and rushed over to the Egyptian Fruit Bat, their eyes blinking quickly. She gave a strange little grin before fluttering up to the ceiling above them and looking down with mesmerizing dark eyes.

9 looked at her a moment before turning once again to the gray bat. "So... you're the only ones left?"

The bat shuffled its black wings before chattering something to 4, who contemplated on whatever he had said before flashing something quickly to 7, who looked mostly clueless, but made an effort to make sense of 4's translation anyway.

"Um... here.... uh.... only...?" 7 stuttered, looking a bit frustrated with herself, like she wished she could understand more.

"Only ones left in this city?" 9 offered. 4 and the gray bat nodded in unison. 7 shot him a little glare, but was focused enough on these strange winged beasts to refrain from whacking him.

The lightbulb, which had been flickering dangerously this whole time, finally went out, and left everyone in darkness. There was the sound of wings beating against the air, and a clinking of glass, before suddenly the room was once again illuminated. The Egyptian Fruit Bat glided back to the group, a proud look on her pretty face. The brown bat glared at her, obviously not impressed.

7 watched her warily, still deeming all the bats untrustworthy. The feminine bat stared back at her evenly, and soon 7 was forced to wrench her gaze from those deep eyes.

"Let's go home." the warrior growled. She didn't really remember what 'home' was, but knew at least that they had one, if only a temporary one. The twins had genuine terror in their eyes when she said this.

9 noticed their fear. "7... it's still dark out..." he pointed out cautiously.

7 frowned. Why hadn't she thought of that? She smacked herself mentally. What a stupid thing to do. "Err... right. Fine. We're going back home at dawn." she mumbled, averting anyone's, or anything's, gaze.

4 gaped her little stitched mouth in a huge yawn and blinked her eyes tiredly. She turned a sleepy gaze onto 9, who frowned and looked around for a place to rest.

"Uh..." he started to ask the gray bat, "Is there anywhere we could sleep?"

The bat gave a curt nod, and squeaked something to the Egyptian Fruit Bat, who looked as if she was contemplating something before taking off into the dark stairwell that led even deeper into the building. In a few minutes she flew back, struggling to carry a few old looking rags in her teeth. She dropped them immediately as she swooped over the stitchpunks, and then turned and flew back into the darkness. The brown bat followed after her after shooting one last glare at the gray bat.

The gray bat watched curiously as 7 and 9 piled the rags into the corner, spreading them out so that there would be room for the four, but not too thin so that the cushioning wouldn't be very noticeable. 3 and 4 immediately curled up in the fabric and fell immediately asleep. The bat squeaked something quickly, which must've been similar to 'good night', before flapping off to where his comrades had gone to.

Soon 7 was the only one evidently awake (though the bats were probably wide awake, being that it was night), but she couldn't sleep. Little tidbits of memory continued to return to her. Her heart felt like it was being ripped apart as she relived every one of her friend's death, every near-death of her loved ones...

It was cold in the cement building. Freezing air seemed to seep in from every direction, engulfing the stairwell where they slept. The rags the family slept in were far from comfortable, and they scratched irritatingly against 7's face. She missed home. She couldn't remember it too well, by means of looks anyway, but she could remember how it felt. It felt safe, warm, and comfortable. She missed it so. The warrior rolled over and looked into 3's serene, sleeping face. She still couldn't believe she had forgotten the twins... forgotten _her _twins. She had been dwelling on the memory of when they had run away from 1's tyranny for the last half hour or so. It was a terrible night. Fear's icy claw clenched around her mechanical heart as she recalled it.

She hadn't picked a good spot to rest, and remembered waking up to the sound of clanking metal. The twins had already awoken, and were clinging to her with petrified expressions plastered on their small faces. A red light scanned the ground a foot or so in front of them. There was no time to run. 7 had hugged the twins tightly to her, and all three of them trembled uncontrollably.

It had seen them.

It ran towards them...

7 didn't really remember what had happened next, it had occurred so quickly. 4 had shone her eyes as brightly as she could, and in so exhausting herself. It had helped somewhat, though, and the beast slowed its pace as its vision adjusted between lighting. There was a split second to make a break for it. 7 had scooped up both the twins and sprinted away at full speed, her legs crying out in protest. The had hidden in a small tunnel that burrowed beneath a pile of trash.

7 shuddered, not wanting to remember any more of what had occurred before they had defeated the B.R.A.I.N.

After what seemed like hours, 7 finally managed to fall asleep, her head still swimming.

_**Augh you guys. XD  
I don't really know where the bats came from**_

_**I like bats... Cx**_

_**AH SO. LIKE. IF YOU NEED ANY EXPLANATIONS TELLLL MEEEEEE. So I can explain it in the next part! D: **_

_**Hopefully I'll be able to finish the next part sooner... I just have school to work with too and all.**_

_**Tell me what you think!!! :)**_


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